bye bye brassy hair

Hair care can be an arduous task and to be honest most time I’m too lazy to (hair) care. (;
So, when my normal routine can do all the work for me, I’m probably a little bit too excited.

I like to keep my hair low maintenance, so why I decided to ‘go blonde’ is beyond me. Any brunette to blonde will tell you, its an expensive rode to walk down to hair that is undeniably going to turn to straw if you don’t care for it. That, or just snap off…

So when I had my first round of bleaching I knew I had to get in on some hair care ASAP! thank goodness for Priceline, their hair care sale was just a few days after my appointment so I picked up some products that I’m going to share with you because, as luck would have it the Priceline hair care sale is happening this week: Thursday the 12th and Friday the 13th (oooohhh) of October.

The first products I added into my hair care regime were the ‘Sheer Blonde Colour Renew Tone-Correcting shampoo and conditioner by John Frieda. As you can see by the less than pristine packaging I used them all up! I really enjoyed this product and in fact I went to re purchase it but it was sold out of either the shampoo or the conditioner and I like using them as a set so I picked up something else instead.

Brass be gone: I found it knocked back the brassy tones that were showing through. I used this shampoo and conditioner 1 to 2 times a week and it kept my hair looking yellow blonde instead of orange blonde which I really liked.

Price: $17.99 each per 250ml – full price

Smell: Not that many will care, but this shampoo and conditioner smell so nice and leave the hair smelling so for at least two days afterwards.

Aftermath: The conditioner does a really nice job at eliminating breakages AND detangling. Because my hair is naturally fine, long and curly/wavy tangles are a constant which mean hair breakage and split ends are a daily struggle. This conditioner once massaged into the lengths of my hair made it easy to brush out. Hair felt silky and smooth for days.

When I went in to purchase the John Frieda again and saw that one was sold out, I came across the Fudge version. It’s the Fudge Clean Blonde Violet Toning Shampoo and Conditioner. Clean blonde… is that a play on words of dirty blonde? I don’t know, but it’s clever. It was slightly more expensive than the John Frieda, but there is more product so I thought, “eh, why not. People have recommended Fudge products in the past.. I’ll give it a go”. I’ll say it now. I really like this duo.

Brass be gone: Wow, this sometimes works too well! I have almost white blonde ends and if I use too much of this I feel like they go grey/silver/purple. I don’t hate it but just be warned. A little goes a long way. Apply it to hands and work through the lengths of your hair don’t apply straight to hair.

Price: $21.99 each per 300ml – full price

Smell: It smells sweet, like confectionary. Almost like lolly bananas? Totally odd but not at all unpleasant. It has a powdery sweet linger to the hair.

Aftermath: Apart from the possible purple ends, this duo does a great job at keeping the brass at bay. My hair tends to get a little bit fluffy if I leave it to air dry after washing, but my hair does feel very soft. I think it would work well on thicker hair that doesn’t tend to fly around like my fine hair does.

A word of caution. As you will see in a photo below, the shampoo is quite purple. I found once I’d finished in the shower there were purple toned water drops everywhere and I was worried it’d staid the grout in the tiles. (Raise your hand if you’re pedantic about tile grout 🙋🏻) it does however wash away easily.

Another note about staining, my fingernails are a violet colour. Especially around the cuticles. For a week I didn’t know how it had t washed off and then I realised it must have stained the roots / my scalp because every time I’d run my fingers through my roots or scratch my head my nails would be purple again so make sure you wash this product out super well. I’ve never had an issue with any other violet shampoo before. Just this one.

Once every one to two weeks I like to treat myself to a hair mask. My hair is naturally quite fine and dry and b cause of that, prone to breakage so I like to give it a boost every now and then. I’ve been using the Masque brand for a while and I’ve tried out 3 of their other masks and really enjoy them. Out of a packet this size I get at least 6 treatments.

Because I use purple shampoo and conditioner intermittently with my regular shampoo and conditioner I sometimes like to let this mask soak in and act as a deep conditioning toner treatment and I find it works quite well.

Brass be gone: I feel like it’s at the same level as the John Frieda. But because I can leave this on longer. It varies. Sometimes I mix in a tiny amount of the Fudge shampoo for a bigger kick.

Aftermath: No staining so that’s a plus. Hair is hydrated and smooth and has a decent amount of the brass kicked back. Hair smells nice and is super soft.

Here you can see the different variations of purple. In my mind the darker the colour the stronger the affect. Left to right is John Frieda, Fudge and Masque. This is only the shampoo (obviously the Masque is just the Masque) the conditioner of both are much more pale in colour.

You can see that the J/F is much more runny than the other two, and also the lightest. That being said I’d still use it again. The other two are quite thick. These swatches were on my hand for 5 mins maximum and the middle one (Fudge) did stain slightly.

After all is said and done, I’d still use any of these products again and I recommend you try them if you’re in the market from some purple shampoo. Just pay close attention when using the Fudge!